This invention relates generally to human and veterinary medical devices, and more particularly to devices incorporating drugs or bioactive agents.
It has become common to treat a variety of medical conditions by introducing an implantable medical device partly or completely into the esophagus, trachea, colon, biliary tract, urinary tract, vascular system or other location within a human or veterinary patient. For example, many treatments of the vascular system entail the introduction of a device such as a stent, a catheter, a balloon, a wire guide, a cannula, or the like. However, when such a device is introduced into and manipulated through the vascular system, the blood vessel walls can be disturbed or injured. Clot formation or thrombosis often results at the injured site, causing stenosis or occlusion of the blood vessel. Moreover, if the medical device is left within the patient for an extended period of time, thrombus often form""s on the device itself, again causing stenosis or occlusion. As a result, the patient is placed at risk of a variety of complications, including heart attack, pulmonary embolism, and stroke. Thus, the use of such a medical device can entail the risk of precisely the problems that its use was intended to ameliorate.
Another way in which blood vessels undergo stenosis is through disease. Probably the most common disease causing stenosis of blood vessels is atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a condition which commonly affects the coronary arteries, the aorta, the iliofemoral arteries and the carotid arteries. Atherosclerotic plaques of lipids, fibroblasts, and fibrin proliferate and cause obstruction of an artery or arteries. As the obstruction increases, a critical level of stenosis is reached, to the point where the flow of blood past the obstruction is insufficient to meet the metabolic needs of the tissue distal to (downstream of) the obstruction. The result is ischemia.
Many medical devices and therapeutic methods are known for the treatment of atherosclerotic disease. One particularly useful therapy for certain atherosclerotic lesions is percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). During PTA, a balloon-tipped catheter is inserted in a patient""s artery, the balloon being deflated. The tip of the catheter is advanced to the site of the atherosclerotic plaque to be dilated. The balloon is placed within or across the stenotic segment of the artery, and then inflated. Inflation of the balloon xe2x80x9ccracksxe2x80x9d the atherosclerotic plaque and expands the vessel, thereby relieving the stenosis, at least in part.
While PTA presently enjoys wide use, it suffers from two major problems. First, the blood vessel may suffer acute occlusion immediately after or within the initial hours after the dilation procedure. Such occlusion is referred to as xe2x80x9cabrupt closure.xe2x80x9d Abrupt closure occurs in perhaps five percent or so of the cases in which PTA is employed, and can result in myocardial infarction and death if blood flow is not restored promptly. The primary mechanisms of abrupt closures are believed to be elastic recoil, arterial dissection and/or thrombosis. It has been postulated that the delivery of an appropriate agent (such as an antithrombic) directly into the arterial wall at the time of angioplasty could reduce the incidence of thrombotic acute closure, but the results of attempts to do so have been mixed.
A second major problem encountered in PTA is the re-narrowing of an artery after an initially successful angioplasty. This re-narrowing is referred to as xe2x80x9crestenosisxe2x80x9d and typically occurs within the first six months after angioplasty. Restenosis is believed to arise through the proliferation and migration of cellular components from the arterial wall, as well as through geometric changes in the arterial wall referred to as xe2x80x9cremodeling.xe2x80x9d It has similarly been postulated that the delivery of appropriate agents directly into the arterial wall could interrupt the cellular and/or remodeling events leading to restenosis. However, like the attempts to prevent thrombotic acute closure, the results of attempts to prevent restenosis in this manner have been mixed.
Non-atherosclerotic vascular stenosis may also be treated by PTA. For example, Takayasu arteritis or neurofibromatosis may cause stenosis by fibrotic thickening of the arterial wall. Restenosis of these lesions occurs at a high rate following angioplasty, however, due to the fibrotic nature of the diseases. Medical therapies to treat or obviate them have been similarly disappointing.
A device such as an intravascular stent can be a useful adjunct to PTA, particularly in the case of either acute or threatened closure after angioplasty. The stent is placed in the dilated segment of the artery to mechanically prevent abrupt closure and restenosis. Unfortunately, even when the implantation of the stent is accompanied by aggressive and precise antiplatelet and anticoagulation therapy (typically by systemic administration), the incidence of thrombotic vessel closure or other thrombotic complication remains significant, and the prevention of restenosis is not as successful as desired. Furthermore, an undesirable side effect of the systemic antiplatelet and anticoagulation therapy is an increased incidence of bleeding complications, most often at the percutaneous entry site.
Other conditions and diseases are treatable with stents, catheters, cannulae and other devices inserted into the esophagus, trachea, colon, biliary tract, urinary tract and other locations in the body, or with orthopedic devices, implants, or replacements. It would be desirable to develop devices and methods for reliably delivering suitable agents, drugs or bioactive materials directly into a body portion during or following a medical procedure, so as to treat or prevent such conditions and diseases, for example, to prevent abrupt closure and/or restenosis of a body portion such as a passage, lumen or blood vessel. As a particular example, it would be desirable to have devices and methods which can deliver an antithrombic or other medication to the region of a blood vessel which has been treated by PTA, or by another interventional technique such as atherectomy, laser ablation, or the like. It would also be desirable that such devices would deliver their agents over both the short term (that is, the initial hours and days after treatment) and the long term (the weeks and months after treatment). It would also be desirable to provide precise control over the delivery rate for the agents, drugs or bioactive materials, and to limit systemic exposure to them. This would be particularly advantageous in therapies involving the delivery of a chemotherapeutic agent to a particular organ or site through an intravenous catheter (which itself has the advantage of reducing the amount of agent needed for successful treatment), by preventing stenosis both along the catheter and at the catheter tip. A wide variety of other therapies could be similarly improved. Of course, it would also be desirable to avoid degradation of the agent, drug or bioactive material during its incorporation on or into any such device.
The foregoing problems are solved and a technical advance is achieved in an illustrative vascular stent or other implantable medical device that provides a controlled release of an agent, drug or bioactive material into the vascular or other system, or other location in the body, in which a stent or other device is positioned. Applicants have discovered that the degradation of an agent, a drug or a bioactive material that is applied to such a device can be avoided by positing a coating layer on one surface of the device structure. The agent, drug or bioactive material is posited over at least a portion of the coating layer, wherein the coating layer provides for a controlled release of the bioactive material posited thereon. Furthermore, the medical device further includes a porous layer posited over the bioactive material wherein the porous layer is composed of a polymer and the polymer provides for a controlled release of the bioactive material through the porous layer.
In one aspect, the coating layer comprises a non-porous material of for example a parylene derivative. This coating layer has a thickness preferably in a range from 50 to 500,000 Angstroms, more preferably in a range from 100,000 to 500,000 Angstroms, and illustratively approximately 200,000 Angstroms. In another aspect, the non-porous material is either an adsorbent or an absorbent material, where the coating layer of the adsorbent material has a thickness of approximately 230,000 Angstroms.
In another aspect of the invention, the bioactive material layer includes a chimeric monoclonal antibody such as an antiplatelet GP IIb/IIIa antibody.
In still another aspect of the invention, an adhesive promotion layer is posited on one surface of the structure on which the coating layer is posited over at least a portion thereof. Preferably the adhesion promotion layer includes silane having a thickness in range of 0.5 to 5,000 Angstroms.
Applicants have also discovered that the degradation of an agent, a drug or a bioactive material applied to such a device may be avoided by covering the agent, drug or bioactive material with a porous layer of a biocompatible polymer that is applied without the use of solvents, catalysts, heat or other chemicals or techniques, which would otherwise be likely to degrade or damage the agent, drug or material. Those biocompatible polymers may be applied preferably by vapor deposition or plasma deposition, and may polymerize and cure merely upon condensation from the vapor phase, or may be photolytically polymerizable and are expected to be useful for this purpose. However, it should be recognized that other coating techniques may also be employed.
Preferably, when the device is intended for use in the vascular system, the bioactive material in the at least one layer is heparin or another antiplatelet or antithrombotic agent, or dexamethasone, dexamethasone acetate, dexamethasone sodium phosphate, or another dexamethasone derivative or anti-inflammatory steroid. Furthermore, a wide range of other bioactive materials can be employed, including, but not limited to, the following categories of agents: thrombolytics, vasodilators, antihypertensive agents, antimicrobials or antibiotics, antimitotics, antiproliferatives, antisecretory agents, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, immunosuppressive agents, growth factors and growth factor antagonists, antitumor and/or chemotherapeutic agents, antipolymerases, antiviral agents, photodynamic therapy agents, antibody targeted therapy agents, prodrugs, sex hormones, free radical scavengers, antioxidants, biologic agents, radiotherapeutic agents, radiopaque agents and radiolabelled agents. The major restriction is that the bioactive material must be able to withstand the coating techniques, for example, the vacuum employed during vapor deposition or plasma deposition of the at least one porous layer. In other words, the bioactive material must have a relatively low vapor pressure at the deposition temperature, typically, near or at room temperature.
The at least one porous layer is preferably composed of a polyamide, parylene or a parylene derivative applied by catalyst-free vapor deposition and is conveniently about 5,000 to 250,000 xc3x85 thick, which is adequate to provide a controlled release of the bioactive material. xe2x80x9cParylenexe2x80x9d is both a generic name for a known group of polymers based on p-xylylene and made by vapor phase polymerization, and a name for the unsubstituted form of the polymer; the latter usage is employed herein. More particularly, parylene or a parylene derivative is created by first heating p-xylene or a suitable derivative at an appropriate temperature (for example, at about 950xc2x0 C.) to produce the cyclic dimer di-p-xylylene (or a derivative thereof). The resultant solid can be separated in pure form, and then cracked and pyrolyzed at an appropriate temperature (for example, at about 680xc2x0 C.) to produce a monomer vapor of p-xylylene (or derivative); the monomer vapor is cooled to a suitable temperature (for example, below 50xc2x0 C.) and allowed to condense on the desired object, for example, on the at least one layer of bioactive material. The resultant polymer has the repeating structure "Parenopenst"CH2C6H4CH2"Parenclosest"n, with n equal to about 5,000, and a molecular weight in the range of 500,000.
As indicated, parylene and parylene derivative coatings applicable by vapor deposition are known for a variety of biomedical uses, and are commercially available from or through a variety of sources, including Specialty Coating Systems (100 Deposition Drive, Clear Lake, Wis. 54005), Para Tech Coating, Inc. (35 Argonaut, Aliso Viejo, Calif. 92656) and Advanced Surface Technology, Inc. (9 Linnel Circle, Billerica, Mass. 01821-3902).
The at least one porous layer can alternatively be applied by plasma deposition. Plasma is an ionized gas maintained under vacuum and excited by electrical energy, typically in the radio frequency range. Because the gas is maintained under vacuum, the plasma deposition process occurs at or near room temperature. Plasma can be used to deposit polymers such as poly(ethylene oxide), poly(ethylene glycol), and poly(propylene oxide), as well as polymers of silicone, methane, tetrafluoroethylene (including TEFLON brand polymers), tetramethyldisiloxane, and others.
While the foregoing represents some preferred embodiments of the present invention, other polymer systems may also be employed, e.g., polymers derived from photopolymerizeable monomers. Also, other coating techniques may be utilized, e.g., dipping, spraying and the like.
The device may include two or more layers of different bioactive materials atop the structure. However, for the purposes of the present invention, the same bioactive material will generally not be posited on the different surfaces of the device within the same layer. In other words, each surface of the device structure will carry a different bioactive material or materials except where the bioactive material is the innermost or outermost layer, e.g. heparin may form the innermost layer or the outermost layer or both. These additional layers may be placed directly atop one another or can be separated by additional porous polymer layers between each of them. Additionally, the layers of bioactive materials can comprise a mixture of different bioactive materials. The porous layers are also preferably composed of parylene or a parylene derivative. Advantageously, the two or more bioactive materials can have different solubilities, and the layer containing the less soluble bioactive material (for example, dexamethasone) is preferably posited above the layer containing the more soluble bioactive material (for example, heparin). Unexpectedly, this has been found to increase the in vitro release rate of some relatively less soluble materials such as dexamethasone, while simultaneously decreasing the release rate of some relatively more soluble materials such as heparin.
While the structure included in the device may be configured in a variety of ways, the structure is preferably configured as a vascular stent composed of a biocompatible metal such as stainless steel, nickel, silver, platinum, gold, titanium, tantalum, iridium, tungsten, Nitinol, inconel, or the like. An additional substantially nonporous coating layer of parylene or a parylene derivative or other biocompatible polymer of about 50,000 to 500,000 xc3x85 thick may be posited directly atop the vascular stent, beneath the at least one layer of bioactive material. The additional coating layer can merely be relatively less porous than the at least one porous layer, but preferably is substantially nonporous, that is, sufficiently nonporous to render the stent essentially impervious to blood during norrmal circumstances of use.
The device and methods of the present invention are useful in a wide variety of locations within a human or veterinary patient, such as in the esophagus, trachea, colon, biliary tract, urinary tract and vascular system, as well as for subdural and orthopedic devices, implants or replacements. They are particularly advantageous for reliably delivering suitable bioactive materials during or following an intravascular procedure, and find particular use in preventing abrupt closure and/or restenosis of a blood vessel. More particularly, they permit, for example, the deliver of an antithrombotic, an antiplatelet, an anti-inflammatory steroid, or another medication to the region of a blood vessel which has been opened by PTA. Likewise, it allows for the delivery of one bioactive material to, for example, the lumen of a blood vessel and another bioactive material to the vessel wall. The use of a porous polymer layer permits the release rate of a bioactive material to be carefully controlled over both the short and long terms.
These and other aspects of the present invention will be appreciated by those skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of the specification.
In another aspect of the invention, the bioactive material is attached to the non-porous layer and is advantageously eluted for prolonged periods of time. The non-porous layer is attached to the base material of the structure. The non-porous layer can be any of those previously or subsequently listed herein, and, likewise, the bioactive material can be any of those previously or subsequently listed herein. Conveniently, and in a preferred embodiment, a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor such as commercially available ReoPro(trademark) is attached to a non-porous layer of parylene positioned on the outer surface of the medical device such as a coronary stent. The ReoPro(trademark) is advantageously eluted from the surface of the stent for prolonged periods of time.